This book is a collection of essays on winey topics. It explains some of the basics about grapes and the wine making process. Then the focus changes to the glories of such famous wines as zinfandel, clarets, chardonnays, and pinot noirs. Then we explore the regions such as Napa Valley, Bordeaux, Beaujolais, and Chianti to find great drinking wines. Learn a bit; laugh a bit; and surely you will enjoy your first sip!

The Poverty of Nations is a study about the status and trends in human well-being as it varies from nation to nation worldwide. A basic premise is that human well-being comes from a nation's physical, social, economic, and political macro systems. A metric of descriptive statistics is built for each system, and then it is aggregated into one metric to gauge the level of human well-being in each nation. The metric describes human well-being in 1960 and 2010 to seek an understanding of the status and trend of human well-being in 151 of the world's nations. Which nations are meeting the United Nation's Millennium Development goals, and which are not?